A convict cannot decide fate of 180m people: CJP

By
fraaz
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45
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Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Monday warned Attorney General Irfan Qadir not to repeat his arguments and be wary of his assertions, adding that the apex court could review the speaker’s ruling.
He made these observations while hearing a set of petitions filed to challenge the NA speaker’s ruling regarding disqualification of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
The CJP said a person who had been found guilty could not be allowed to decide the fate of 180 million people. “The petitions are of the view that fate of 180 million people is in the hand of such a person who has been sentenced by a seven-member bench of the Supreme Court.” Earlier, the three-member bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain resumed hearing in the cases. The court also directed the attorney general to complete his arguments, but Irfan Qadir successfully convinced the court to adjourn the case until today (Tuesday).
Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, the counsel for the prime minister, contended that the court had no power to disqualify a member of parliament. He said the jurisdiction of the Election Commission could not be invoked directly without a reference from the NA speaker. The attorney general in his arguments, contended that the seven-member bench that convicted the prime minister had “travelled beyond its jurisdiction”

as the issue before it was whether the respondent had committed contempt or not. “The issue before the bench was not the disqualification of the PM but it was required to decide whether he had committed any contempt or not,” he added. He said the bench that decided the issue had failed to bring into zoom or sweep the likely consequences of Article 63 (1) (g). He further contended that the Supreme Court had no role to play in matters to be decided either by the NA speaker or the Election Commission of Pakistan. However, the chief justice disagreed with his argument and said the reasons could be taken up in an appeal. Qadir contended that the bench was accepting arguments from the petitioners but it was not accepting his contentions.
Responding to the bench’s query, the AG said all aspects of the issue had been taken care of by the speaker and she had written a very soft worded ruling. There was no contempt of court law in the country and the PM could not be held guilty for what could not be implemented in the NRO judgment, he added. Objecting to an additional note of a member of the seven-judge bench, the AG said the honourable judge had supported the verdict against the PM with mere six-page poetry, he added. He said it was unique in judicial precedents of the country that criminal case was decided on basis of poetry. However, the chief justice stopped him from repetition of the arguments by warning him.
The AG, however, responded that he would object to such kind of poetry as the highest office of chief executive in the country was ridiculed with such a note. He questioned whether the speaker should go through poetry? There was no mention of ridicule in the defunct contempt of court law, he asserted. He said all petitions should be dismissed as the petitioners had not approached the court with “clean hands”, especially the petitions of Imran Khan and Khwaja Asif which were filed for settling political scores against the ruling party and to gain public attention. He said Khwaja Asif was a “great liar” who was presenting a wrong impression on a TV programme.
The chief justice said they had already observed that there should be decorum in the courts and everybody was respectable. Qadir said live coverage of the proceedings should be allowed so that everybody should learn what was going on or at least such kind of misreporting should be banned. He said there were a number of contempt cases pending with the court but those had not been heard while the instant case was taken up and decided at a fast pace. Responding to another question of the bench, the AG said that there was no need to file an appeal or to move an application under Article 183, as it was evident from the past precedents that old cases could be revisited without an appeal, like Iqbal Tikka’s case. The AG would resume his arguments today.
Earlier, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan concluded his arguments in the case. He contended that the petitioners who approached the court under fundamental rights could not establish their which basic right had been breached. “The respondent is not convicted for an offence or sentenced which could have disqualified him. Every conviction does not mean disqualification,” he added. Aitzaz argued that the speaker’s ruling had considered that no question over scandalizing and ridiculing of the court had arisen so she took the right decision. “I will say in great humility and respect that the court has no powers to disqualify a member of the parliament. The case is to be sent to speaker whereas jurisdiction of the Election Commission could not be invoked directly without a reference from the speaker,” he added. Citing reason for not filing an appeal in the PM’s contempt case, the counsel said that the decision did not disqualify him so there was no need to move it. He contended that since the issue of disqualification of a member of the parliament was not the matter of public importance, so none of the petitioners were able to invoke provisions of fundamental rights.

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45 COMMENTS

  6. Punjabi_Establishment Working for Greater_Punjab , Thus Hammering the Democracy . Punjabi Biased Anchors & Biased CJP Sailing in the Same_Boat .

  7. I sense, cj want to be a dictator, shocked at his discourse with defense lawyers. how can he take away parliament’s powers, and his using ‘a convict cannot decide the fate of 180m is ridiculous, it is a coalition govt which has support of the majority of the people. i don’t understand his slogan-like language. isn’t he showing the symptoms of over-qualification.

  8. Aitezaz and other government lawyers are banging their head against a wall of prejudice and judicial dictatorship. Now time has come that all PPP governments stop defending themselves in front of these biased judges and parliament and assemblies openly pose a no trust on these judges and ask attorney general and other government lawyers to stop appearing in fron of them.

    • Come on, for God sake. How long you guys going to fool public.
      Judiciary is the only hope left, leave it alone.

        • How do u consider a chief justice who cud not eradicate corruption from judiciary, as a hope for the nation, a chief justice who cud not stop his own family from corruption, how could he be a hope for the nation?

        • Hmmm…. The main thing is to control the governmental corruption, which is killing the country and the government is represented by the PPP . So, PPP leadership should first stop supporting and doing corrupt activities and than they can expect something good from the apex court!!!!!!! 🙂

          • @Zia, do not try to put the horse before the cart. Hmmm, it is apex court which shud set an example first, because as a court of justice, it shud be a symbol of probity and an example for the nation. So, first of all judiciary shud be made free of corruption and corrupt elements. All others, politicians, businessmen come later.

          • Could these PCO judges, Despit all the bias, prove a single case of corruption against this government. They are fast tracking political cases only.

            Those PCO judges are more ani PPP than Moulvi Mushtaq and their place in history is not going to be much different.

  12. yeah! Atziz is right that no parliamentarian can be disqualified by judiciary either under constitutional conventions which is considered to be a remote secondary source of law in Pakistan or directly through any interpretations of the provisions of constitution of Pakistan as if judiciary does then it oversteps its jurisdiction as said by Bukhari and it can lead to further constitutional crisis.

  13. If this was the case, my lord! Why was the ambiguity left in the judgement / verdict by the SC? You have just added to the state of unstability in Pakistan so far.

    • I actually agree with the statement by Cobrajock.

      SC seemed almost scared to pass a more serious judgement which severely affected its reputation.

      I hope CJ comes down as hard as he possibly can on President & PM. We will soon file 'treason' charges against these two & Rehman Malik as well.

      • You are a real H-A-R-A-M-I and you dont know even who is ur father and whose blood is flowing in ur veins?

  14. Thief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is a RAW agent and he is fullfilling RAW agenda by destabilising a democratic govt.

  15. Disqualification is not enough. Gillani and Zardari must be hanged in public to set an example for other corrupt ppp leaders. These crooks are destroying Pakistan. The only people who do not understand this are the ppp followers and they do it because they are just plain dumb. PPP has made sure that no schools are built and there is no education. This way they can control these uneducated people who can only think of basic survival and cannot think beyond that.

    • Supporters of Thief Justice are following a most corrupt judge in history of judiciary who is destabilising the country by oversteping his domain. How can he set in order affairs of 180 million people when he has failed to stop his own family from corruption. First he shud set his own house in order, and shud not put federation and unity of Pakistan at risk.

      • This judiciary is a million times better than the past. Would love to hear stories if you have any on the antics of these judges…

  16. Every where Parliament is supreme but here efforts are being made to prove Supreme Court has right to over rule Parliament. This is highly dangerous trend that in long run would destroy the whole system in the country.

    The job of supreme court is only to give explanation of the Constitution and not violate the constitution.

    If Prime Minister has no immunity, now every one would call Prime Minister to the Court and his most of the tenure would spend in the courts.

    Nawaz Sharif is making hue and cry for the Court unnecessarily but during his tenure his supporters attacked the Supreme Court in the past and they were convicted like his ex-MNA Tariq Aziz etc., With what face, he is talking about the supremacy of the apex court. Such people think the memory of the public is short so they are trying to make the public fool.

  17. No law for these lusty and frivolious politicians who have no inner sense of dignity and who are playing with the fate of Innocent people of Pakistan.May Allah put them over right path to save the lives of our people.Ameen.

  18. The confrontation between the government and the supreme court is most unfortunate and no good is going to come out of it either for the supreme court ,the government or the country.The country as a whole would suffer if the institutions of the state do not learn to work within the parameters as laid down in the constitution.The country cannot afford a clash of institutions at this stage.

  19. Today at early in the morning at ravi toll plaz police arrested a person who opened fair on police check post at ravi toll plaz.

  25. I sense, cj want to be a dictator, shocked at his discourse with defense lawyers. how can he take away parliament's powers, and his using 'a convict cannot decide the fate of 180m is ridiculous, it is a coalition govt which has support of the majority of the people. i don't understand his slogan-like language. isn't he showing the symptoms of over-qualification.

  26. IT DOES NOT END WITH THE DISQUALIFICATION OF MR GALANI.IT BEGINS WITH THE DISQUALIFICATION OF PRESIDENT LIABLE TO SEVEREST PUNISHMENT FOR VOILATING CONSTITUTION FROM DAY ONE AS POLITICAL,PARTISAN PRESIDENT ALLEGEDLY INVOLVED IN HORRENDOUS CORRUPTION,RUINING PSML,PIA,RAILWAYS,ELECTRICITY,PIA,EVERY INSTITUTION.EQUALLY LIABLE ARE TARGET KILLERS,BATHAKHORS COALITION MAFIA OF PPPZ,MQM,ANP,ML-C.PRESIDENT MUST BE PROCEEDED FOR VOILATING LHC VERDICT

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